Downtown needs more destination attractions

Updated
12:02 pm CDT, Thursday, July 26, 2018

A craft brewery approved by Beaumont City Council this week is the kind of business downtown needs, whether you drink or not. A place like that is a destination, something that people who live outsidedowntown (which is virtually everyone in Southeast Texas) might specifically plan to visit. It’s not something they can find everywhere else in the region. In fact, there’s only one other, in Port Neches, and it’s doing well for some of the same reasons.

People will go downtown, or anywhere, if if offers a worthwhile reason for the trip. The brewery seems interesting, with plans for a tasting room, picnic tables and yard games to keep customers hanging around for a while. With lower rental or purchase costs downtown, a business like that could succeed when it couldn’t somewhere else.

Developers occasionally talk about loft apartments and other kinds of housing downtown. We certainly don’t want to discourage that. But let’s be realistic: Downtown will never again have thousands of residents. Any business or attraction that succeeds there will have to attract customers from other parts of Beaumont or nearby cities, where there are already tens of thousands of potential customers — with cars.

Fortunately, city officials appear to understand. Last week the council approved plans to proceed with the demolition of the vacant AT&T building on Main Street with hopes of attracting a riverfront restaurant like the Wheelhouse in Port Neches. Something like that might succeed because it would offer patrons a riverfront view and experience they couldn’t get at the dozens of other restaurants in the region. Once the downtown attracts more traffic like this, those people could help support the more traditional businesses or food trucks, or encourage them to stay open longer.

Broadly speaking, recent downtown additions like the Event Centre, the lake and the Great Lawn fit this concept. They’re not businesses, but they’re not run-of-the-mill attractions either. The city’s recent July Fourth fireworks show and related activities were jam-packed, in part for these reasons. The city Craft Beer Fest held at the Event Centre downtown in September has been a sellout too. An actual downtown craft brewery will both help and benefit from that event’s existence.

City officials should keep looking for opportunities like these. Downtown is developing some momentum, and every new contribution helps. Any entrepreneur or risk-taker who tries something different deserves public support as well.